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On February 18, 1977, Nigerian soldiers invaded the compound where Fela Kuti, his wives and children, musicians and their families lived and made their music. The Nigerian government, incensed and repeatedly embarrassed by the flagrant and continued defiance shown by Kuti throughout his career had finally decided to take drastic action. The resulting raid would end with Fela badly beaten, his compound burned to the ground, his recording equipment destroyed, and his mother in a coma from which she would not recover.
Few people would have it in them to even continue a musical career after such a blow, fewer still would be able to renew their antiestablishment attacks with such renewed fury as Fela did. If Sorrow Tears and Blood doesn’t quite stand with Zombie or Expensive Shit, it certainly isn’t because of the subject matter, as Fela reveals the fruit of the bloody, cowardly work of the government stooges he’d so pointedly castigated in his previous work with renewed indignation. Where other albums would be more likely to open with a roaring dance number, Sorrow, Tears and Blood is a thundering, accusatory account of the raid is carried by an almost plodding funk rhythm that doesn’t fall prey to any sense of grief and lamentation, but bears a sense of steely defiance and steadfast determination. This isn’t the exuberant, defiant energy of Expensive Shit, or the ferocious attack of Zombie, this is the anthem of a man who has refused to be destroyed, who has made his voice and music a weapon against corruption and injustice. If the music on the title track isn’t always as gripping as the words and the idea behind them, it’s perhaps because the words themselves are meant to take center stage; where before the music had been the vehicle of Fela’s political expression, the rhythmic conduit to the hearts of listeners in Nigeria and beyond, here it’s the backdrop to Fela’s catalogue of injustice. This is borne out by the instrumental powerhouse that is Colonial Mentality, a track that finds Fela’s backing band in rare form. The horns and saxophones sinuously weave themselves around the tight, mid-tempo funk groove, rising here and there from the mélange to burst into brash, glorious solos, while Fela himself takes a backseat, only appearing on about 5 minutes of the track’s 13 minute length to denounce the colonialist mindset that would deny the place of African culture in the minds of Africans. While Fela’s appearance is typically scathing, the relative brevity of his part in favor of the backing band is as much to say, that even though Fela had come through his experience a survivor, battered and undaunted in his commitment to his vision for his country and people, he still recognized that the source of his strength as a voice speaking to corruption and tyranny was still the music that carried his words to dance halls and radio waves across Africa.
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A very sad story of a very good musician. I don’t know if it’s true that such events in life harden and make you stronger, but it’s as if they did it. I once heard about it from my friend whom I https://essaypay.com/coursework-help/ ask for coursework help and didn’t remember about it for a long time, but I remembered a couple of climbs back and was surprised how beautiful it is.
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
Is this a bot lol
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
This didn’t already have a review?????
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
While I might prefer Zombie’s t/t more than either of the songs on here, both songs on here pretty much destroy Mister Follow Follow (which is still good though)
I’ve heard like what 8 albums? By him and this is the best of those
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
Zombie is pretty much the hardest groove of all time. This might be the only Fela album where I prefer the second track to the first
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
Weird even on Expensive Shit? I always hard preferred Water over Expensive
But I do agree that Colonial Mentality is better than the t/t but also they’re both 5/5s
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
Man, the way Expensive Shit just builds itself up is incredible though, way prefer it to Water
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
Also, whichever Nigerian government official neg'd, show yourself, coward
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
Omg super nice that you reviewed this!!!!! More Fela reviews please!
| | | It's a good day when Fela Kuti gets reviewed
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
Fela's life alone deserves pages of discussion, let alone the music
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
Definitely agree, have a pos too, this was a lovely read.
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
Great write up dad
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
Colonial Mentality is an absolute barnstormer, up there with Gentleman, Zombie and Algabon's t/ts for me - and those are my fave Kuti cuts so far
(really wanted to say Kuti cuts)
nice that this has a review, well done DKF
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
This is the only Fela album out of the 8 I’ve checked where I’d say both side a and side b are brilliant
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
He does have that tendency to do an absolute banger on one half and have the other half be just good but Fela's good is still better than 99.9% of music
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
Agreed!
Zombie is such a classic example of it too. A-side is perfection, B-side is good
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
yeah, this is my fave side B from Kuti to date
although I probably shouldn't have been cycling through around six of his records at once over the last couple of days, so opinions may change in due course
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
Why hadn't I rated this yet???! Fixed.
Agreed, this is another ultra good one. I approached it the same way by the way Demon. These aren't long albums either so it's fine to check them a couple at a time anyway.
| | | might be his best. crazy good
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